US Patent Issued to BackBeat Medical on April 21 for "Methods and apparatus to stimulate heart atria" (New York, New Jersey Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,605,554, issued on April 21, was assigned to BackBeat Medical LLC (New Hope, Pa.).

"Methods and apparatus to stimulate heart atria" was invented by Howard Levin (Teaneck, N.J.) and Mark Gelfand (New York).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and apparatus for treatment of hypertension and heart failure by increasing vagal tone and secretion of endogenous atrial hormones by excitory pacing of the heart atria. Atrial pacing is done during the ventricular refractory period resulting in atrial contraction against closed AV valves, and atrial contraction rate that is higher than the ventricular contraction rate. Pacing results in the incre...